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The Last Exorcism | 2010 | PG-13 | - 3.8.4
A man, who has been preaching at his father's church since he was a young man, has a crisis of faith after a near tragedy in his family and decides that his mission is to stop exorcisms on people convinced that they are possessed by demons. When he goes to Louisiana with a film crew to make a documentary, he is asked to perform an exorcism on a 16-year-old girl. Also with Patrick Fabian, Ashley Bell, Iris Bahr, Louis Herthum, Caleb Landry Jones, Tony Bentley, John Wright Jr., Shanna Forrestall and Justin Shafer. Directed by Daniel Stamm. [1:30]
SEX/NUDITY 3 - A teen girl sits on a hotel room bed wearing her nightgown, and she appears to be nearly catatonic; a woman tries to figure out if she is OK and the teen kisses the woman's shoulder and licks her.
► A teen girl asks a man if he'd like to have oral sex A teen girl describes to her father and another man how a teen boy picked her up in his car and took her to a field, where they had sex, and that she liked it. A teen boy tells a woman that he is gay and that he could not have fathered a child. We hear that a teen girl is nude while she stands over a sleeping man (we do not see anything). A man repeatedly says that his daughter is a virgin. A woman says that she suspects that a teen girl is pregnant by her own father.
► A young woman is seen sitting in a bathroom with a towel wrapped around her and her father kneels near the bathtub, and then touches her knee (it does not appear to be sexual).
► A teen girl removes her nightgown (we see her bare back to the waist).
VIOLENCE/GORE 8 - A woman runs through dark woods and is grabbed by a man who pushes her to the ground and hacks her with an ax (we hear her screaming and hear the blows; no blood is seen).
► A camera, while filming, is used to beat a cat to death: we hear the cat scream with the repeated blows, we see blood on the camera lens and we see a pile of bloody tissue where the cat had been lying.
► A man runs through woods and is startled by someone who comes up behind him and cuts his head off with a scythe (we hear the "schwing" of the blade, a squish and a thud as the man's body hits the ground).
► A teen girl is chained by the ankles and sits on the floor of a barn while a man performs an exorcism: she pulls at her skin, she twists her neck unnaturally and we hear a crack, her face contorts and she speaks with a woman's voice, she leans backward, almost bent in half, and she breaks three of her own fingers by bending them back (we hear them crack) and she screams.
► We see a teen boy holding a very bloody cloth to his face and when he withdraws the cloth, we see a deep, bloody gash in his cheek, which opens when he tries to speak. We see a dead cow lying on its side with its stomach open and its intestines exposed and spread on the ground (it's a very bloody pile of flesh and organs).
► Many people are heard chanting around a large fire in a clearing and we see a teen girl lying on a table with a woman at her feet, reaching between her legs, and the girl screams, as the woman pulls something out; we see a bloody form, which a man throws into the fire and the flames burst high into the air.
► A teen girl screams and attacks a man, they fall back on the ground, they wrestle briefly, and he carries her into her house, as her father approaches shooting off rounds from his shotgun. A teen girl lunges toward a man and cuts his hand with a knife (we see a bit of blood on his hand).
► We see a blood-soaked skirt as two men discuss whether a teen girl might be involved in killing farm animals. A teen girl lies in bed wearing a skirt that is blood spattered.
► A teen girl lies on a bed and a man prays over her during an exorcism: the man commands a demon to get out of the girl, the bed shakes frantically, we hear a deep roaring voice, the girl screams, and the man thrashes back away from the bed and falls to the floor, as the crucifix he is holding smokes. We hear loud thumping and glass breaking in an upstairs room and when three people enter, they find a teen girl cowering on top of a wardrobe. A teen girl puts her feet in a basin filled with water and the water bubbles as if it's boiling. A teen girl pulls at her face (we hear squishing) and spreads her eye wide open.
► A teen girl stands in the shadows of a hallway, a man and a woman approach her, and she turns abruptly and walks into a darkened room. A man pulls his teenage daughter by the arm, as she yells and struggles to free herself (we later see her chained to her bed). We hear a baby crying and see a teen girl kneeling next to a bathtub holding a baby doll under water.
► We see pictures of dead people -- one with his head cut off and blood around him and the other with severed limbs. A teen girl has pictures that hang on her bedroom walls depicting the story of Esther of Antioch and others that show people dead with bloody wounds and severed head and limbs. We see a picture of a dead cat splattered with red spots. We see a book with etchings of demons that have horns, claws, wings and pointed teeth in a few scenes. We see the inside of a house has been painted with demonic symbols and we hear that the phones have been ripped out of the walls.
► A teen boy threatens to hurt a man. A man reads a letter that includes the phrase, "My livestock is being slaughtered nightly." A man describes that an alligator bites and rolls tearing out chunks from its prey. A woman says, "The gates to hell are right down the street." A teen girl says that she has been waking up screaming at night. We hear that a book contains descriptions of demons and information about how to get rid of them. A man quotes from a book and says that a possessed person's only salvation will come in death. A man talks about people dying during exorcisms and mentions plastic bags being placed over the victim's face. We see an article in a newspaper that presents information about a boy's death during an exorcism. We hear that a woman died from breast cancer. A man describes possession by a specific demon as defiling the flesh after coiling around the soul. A man describes a confrontation he had with another man, which included a heated argument. A man describes his teenage daughter as "the devil got in her." We hear that a teen girl is burned whenever she tries to wear a crucifix. A teen boy is described as "hating God a lot." A man says, "Every preacher has to have a hook." We hear that a pastor had a party for a group of 16-year-olds.
► We see an alligator in the grass near a road. A teen girl with a camera stands over a sleeping man and he wakes up startled.
► A teen girl vomits and we see goo dribbling out of her mouth. A teen boy throws two clumps of mud or dung at the back windows of a moving van (the people in the van are alarmed, but the glass does not break; we only see splatter on the windows).
LANGUAGE 4 - 8 sexual references, 3 mild obscenities, name-calling (drunk, insane), 4 religious exclamations.
SUBSTANCE USE - We hear that a teen girl was prescribed Halcyon. We hear that a man drinks alcohol to soothe the pain after his wife's death.
DISCUSSION TOPICS - Demons, faith, evil, exorcism, deceit, devil worshipping, Satan, fraud, crisis of faith, premature birth, rape, incest, virginity, autism, culture, superstition, isolation, illiteracy, UFOs, poverty, cults, alcoholism, grief, sorrow, death of a parent, teen pregnancy, homosexuality, death of a spouse, shame.
MESSAGE - Demons do exist.
CAVEATS
Be aware that while we do our best to avoid spoilers it is impossible to disguise all details and some may reveal crucial plot elements.
We've gone through several editorial changes since we started covering films in 1992 and older reviews are not as complete & accurate as recent ones; we plan to revisit and correct older reviews as resources and time permits.
Our ratings and reviews are based on the theatrically-released versions of films; on video there are often Unrated, Special, Director's Cut or Extended versions, (usually accurately labelled but sometimes mislabeled) released that contain additional content, which we did not review.
Heretic - 3.6.3
Conclave - 1.2.2
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Memoir of a Snail - 6.6.4
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